Baltimore Orioles: Chris Davis Makes History Against Oakland A’s

No one wanted to see the record fall, but Baltimore Orioles first baseman Chris Davis has been held hitless for 48-straight at-bats.

Before each at-bat against the Oakland Athletics,  a loud “Come on, Chris” could be heard coming from my living room. I didn’t want to see Chris Davis break the record and I would like to think that no fans of the Baltimore Orioles wanted to see him break the record, but here we are.

With an 0-5 performance against the Oakland A’s on Monday night, in front of a sparse crowd at Camden Yards, Baltimore Orioles’ first baseman Chris Davis broke the major league record for the longest stretch of at-bats without recording a base hit, for a position player.

To Davis’ credit, he didn’t go down in history via the strikeout (that came after he broke the record), something we have become accustomed to seeing him do at the plate on a routine basis. Three of his four at-bats ended in a flyball out, with the record coming on a ball that, more often than not, is a hit in the major leagues.

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Using Baseball Savant’s in-game batted ball data, Davis’ second inning flyball against Marco Estrada had just a .140 expected batting average (xBA). It was a simple, routine flyball out, but it was contact.

His next at-bat came in the third inning and had an xBA of .310. The result was another flyball out that tied the record, originally set by Eugenio Velez across two seasons (2010-2011).

The record-breaking at-bat came against Yusmeiro Petit in the bottom of the fifth inning. Off the bat, it looked as if Davis was going to triumphantly avoid a history-making moment and send Petit’s pitch into the seats for an opposite-field home run. Unfortunately, the result was another flyball out.

The xBA on that batted ball- .580. A little bad luck for Chris Davis and now a record holder of a distinction we didn’t want to see his name attached to.

His last hit came on September 14th, 2018, a double against James Shields of the Chicago White Sox. He is now 0-27 with 14 strikeouts in 2019.

In his final two at-bats of the night, Chris Davis struck out looking on a 94 mph fastball by Liam Hendriks on the inside corner of the plate and went down swinging in the 8th inning against Fernando Rodney, running the record up to 0-49.